Born Sept. 30, 1207, renowned Persian poet Rumi has his birthday celebrated 800 years later.
On Saturday, Rumi’s birthday’s eve, the U Rumi Poetry Club will be hosting the program “In the Ocean of Rumi: Celebration of Rumi 800” in OSH from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. The program includes lectures on Rumi’s life and poetry.
There will be readings of Rumi’s poetry in both English and Persian and performances of Persian music by the AVA Musical Group influenced and inspired by Rumi’s poetry. The event is free and open to the public.
“I was first exposed to Rumi as a boy in my Persian textbooks,” said Rasoul Sorkhabi, a member of the Rumi poetry club and a research professor at the Energy and Geoscience Institute. “He’s been a source of inspiration and consultation for me.”
“The content of Rumi’s poetry transcends time, countries, language and culture, because he writes on the heart,” he said. “Rumi’s idea of love is inclusive of all people regardless of country, race or religion. His message is needed today.”
Rumi did not write his poems down or edited them, Sorkhabi said. Often, it was in moments of ecstasy when Rumi was dancing or in meditation that he would recite his poems while his disciples recorded them. In his work, the central theme is always love, stemming from Rumi’s thought that everyone is given a heart and the ability to love with it.
One of Rumi’s poems reads, “Go and wash off all hatred from your chest/ seven times with water/ then you can become our companion/ drinking the wine of love.”
“Rumi’s poetry has music in it,” said Amir Keramat a member of the AVA musical group. “When his poetry is read in Persian, music is in its nature.”
In its original context, Rumi’s poetry is steeped in musical influences. Sorkhabi said that in Persian, Rumi’s poetry has an innate music to it expressed in rhyme that isn’t preserved in its translation. Modern translators have begun to translate Rumi’s poetry in the form of free verse that Sorkhabi feels captures its true essence.
The U’s Rumi Poetry club was founded this year and holds monthly hour-long meetings the first Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. For more information on the club or the Rumi Celebration tomorrow, contact Sorkhabi at [email protected].